The Winter that Changed Everything
by HungerGamesLover1020
Summary: Honestly, it's just like any other camp, just different activities during the winter, of course. Instead of long hikes there's snowball fights, ice skating instead of swimming, hot chocolate instead of ice cream. No matter the season, each of the kids loved camp more than anything. One of those campers - Katniss Everdeen - is now a counselor, and that is where our story begins...
1. Chapter 1

When most kids think of camp, the first thing that comes to mind is summer. The warm air, the refreshing water, shorts, the pool...these are all things associated with camp.

This isn't necessarily the case for the kids at Camp Silver Cliff.

Of course they have camp in the summer, what kind of camp would it be if they don't have a summer session? But this particular camp has two sessions: one during summer break, and one during winter break.

Honestly, it's just like any other camp, just different activities during the winter, of course. Instead of long hikes there's snowball fights, ice skating instead of swimming, hot chocolate instead of ice cream. No matter the season, each of the kids loved camp more than anything. One of those campers - Katniss Everdeen - is now a counselor, and that is where our story begins...

* * *

My boots crunch against the blanket of snow as I walk towards the meeting hall, my breath coming out as puffs of white smoke against the cold. A small smile forms on my face as the building comes into view, bustling with people on the inside. I finally made it to my second home: camp.

Ever since I was a kid I've been going to this camp, and it's truly my favorite place to spend my time during the winter and summer, I couldn't imagine not going here. You see, this is _techincally_ a camp for troubled children, but not all of the kids are troubled, just a good portion of them. I guess with my dad being dead and my mom off in her own little world, I fell into that category of a "troubled kid".

I'll never forget the days I spent here during the summer and winter - laughing, playing games, and making friends I would never get the chance to meet back home. To me, this is the happiest place on earth.

But, my days as a camper are long over and I'm now a counselor helping the kids that just need to take a break from their normal lives, even if just for a couple weeks. Most of the counselors, like me, used to be campers, therefore we all grew up with each other in this camp. Every now and then we get a new counselor, but it's highly unlikely. There's no need to introduce myself to anyone as I make my way up the stairs into the meeting hall, looking at the familiar faces around me.

My thoughts are interrupted by someone calling my name from across the room. I look up and roll my eyes at Finnick, smiling slightly. He motions over to where he's sitting, pointing to the chair next to him. I walk over and let my bag fall to the floor, looking around the room. The meeting hall is set up like usual, a small stage in front of a cluster of chairs, sofas and tables pressed up against the walls, with a fire place on each side of the room, illuminating the room with their warmth.

"So, how've you been?" Finnick looks up at me, lifting an eyebrow. Finnick used to be one of my good friends from my camper days - and he still is. He's always trying to get me to help him hook up with the other girls. I don't mind though, I actually find it kind of humorous to see him flirt with all the girls. He tried to do the same to me once, but needless to say that didn't work out too well. As of today we're just good friends, nothing more.

"Pretty good, actually." I smile, sitting down next to him and adjusting my hat, smoothing out my braid. "I've missed it here." I shrug, looking around, noticing that all of the counselors are pretty much already here, filling up the chairs around me and bustling with excitement.

"But you've missed me most right?" He smirks, earning another eye roll from me as I sit back against my chair, looking up right as Effie steps onto the small stage. Ugh, Effie. Now don't get me wrong, I love Effie to death. She's the greatest Activities Director a camp could have. Just sometimes, her perkiness can get to be a bit much.

"Hello Everyone!" She grins excitedly, walking to the center of the stage. This year she's sporting her newest hair color change, bright red. (There's a new color every season, you never know what to expect.) "Please, take a seat, as usual the announcements are about to begin."

The room fills with the sound of bustling feet, everyone joining in the seats around Finnick and I. As I stare up at Effie's new hair, wondering how it's even possible to get your hair that bright red, I notice someone quietly sit in the chair next to me. I glance over and do a double take at the person sitting next to me.

He's new, I'm positive of it. He has wavy blonde hair, and stunning blue eyes. As I stare at him a strange feeling of déjà vu washes over me. I know him from somewhere... As he glances over at me, it hits me. My mouth falls open slightly as he offers a small smile to me. "I know you!" I smile slightly, hardly believing he's sitting in front of me. "You-"

I'm interrupted my Effie clearing her throat, calling the attention back to her. I steal a small glance over at him before turning back to Effie, focusing my attention on her. It dawns on me how strange I was just acting, staring at the poor guy like a weirdo. I cringe slightly thinking about how I must of looked, sighing. Good job, Everdeen, always socially awkward.

"It's so good to have you all back here this winter. I'm sure this will be the greatest winter session ever!" She starts over-enthusiastically, repeating the same speech she gives every season. "Now, the campers will be here in about an hour, so we are very short on time. You can find your counselor lanyard at the back tables, as well as your cabin assignment and camper list. Please don't loose these, as we all know Haymitch will probably never get around to replacing them." She says, glancing back at the grumpy looking man at the back of the building.

Haymitch- He's the camp director. And a lazy camp director at that. He pretty much just makes Effie do all the work while he sits back and eats the food. He gives an unappreciative grunt before going back to his nap, causing the rest of us to snicker before Effie continues. "I won't keep you any longer, good luck with your campers and remember: Have fun!" She bounces off the stage as the rest of us stand up, shuffling to the back of the room with our bags.

There's ten of us counselors, so it's not too hard to find my name on the table. I grab my lanyard along with the papers on the table, heading out into the crisp, cold air. I look down at the papers as I walk towards the cabins. Cabin number 7. I shrug, slightly as I turn to the list of campers, looking over the list of girls I have this winter. As I'm walking, I bump into someone, looking up at muttering "Sorry." before falling into step next to them. I glance up, smiling at the blonde again.

"Hey, I remember you." I smile as he looks over at me. "You went to camp one year and I haven't seen you since. It's...Peter, right?" I lift an eyebrow hopefully, knowing I'm probably wrong.

He chuckles slightly, holding up his lanyard. "Peeta." He glances down at my lanyard, his face filling with recognition as he reads my name. "Oh yeah, I do know you." He smiles, "You're that girl who got hit by the baseball, right?"

I sigh, remembering that story. "We don't speak of that." I joke, smiling, but then nodding. "Yeah, that would be me...You only went to camp that one year, what happened?" I raise an eyebrow, glancing up at him.

"My dad got a new job offer and we moved." He shrugs slightly, looking down at me. "But it didn't really work out, so here I am." He smiles.

I nodded knowingly before we continue the walk in silence, catching up with the other counselors. "Just to let you know," Finnick announced, turning around and walking backwards through the snow, "My team is _totally_ going to destroy all of your teams." He shrugged, smirking cockily, "So just go ahead and accept it now before it's too painful to accept."

"Oh will you shut up already." Johanna shook her head, pushing him to almost cause him to fall. I laugh slightly, shaking my head with the others. Johanna was one of the "troubled kids" along with me. She was in foster care as a kid and could be pretty ruthless. By now we all know not to mess with her, but Finnick still pushes the limit.

"Yeah, we all know my team is going to win. Or Clove's." Cato adds in from the back. I throw a look back at him, rolling my eyes. Cato and Clove were the most snarkiest counselors, along with Glimmer and Marvel. They can get pretty annoying at times.

I glance around for a moment, furrowing my eyebrows. "Wait," I start, shaking my head in confusion. "There's only nine of us here, where's the last person?" I raise an eyebrow, surprised that I didn't catch that earlier.

"I overheard Effie say that one of the girls got stuck in snow on the way, she'll be here soon." Foxface leans over and tells me. Foxface is one the most observant person I've ever met. She's pretty sneaky when she needs to be. Foxface is just her nickname, to be honest I'm not even sure what her real name is. One year someone called her Foxface and it just stuck, it's even printed on her lanyard. "She's new." She adds afterwards.

"Ooo, a new girl." Finnick lifts his eyebrows, grinning as we reach the cabins. "What a delightful surprise." We all groan, staring up at the sky.

"Here we go again." Johanna mumbles, sighing.

We all head off to our cabins, ready to get settled. I walk up to the porch of my cabin, using the key on my lanyard to open the door before stepping inside. The heater is already on, filling the room with warmth. The cabin is fairly simple, three sets of bunkbeds pressed against the wall with a couple dressers pressed near the beds.

I set my bag on one of the bottom beds in the middle of the room, that way I can keep an eye on all of the girls. I quickly unpack my things into a drawer before sitting back onto the bed, sighing and reading over my list of campers. A small smile forms on my face as I lean against the wall. I know this is going to be one of the best weeks of my life.


	2. Chapter 2

After getting situated there's a knock on the door of my cabin, pulling me away from my thoughts. "It's open!" I yell, sitting up on my bed and smoothing out my hair.

Johanna walks inside, her combat boots clicking across the hard-wood floors. She sighs and sits down on the bed across from me, leaning against the wall and tossing a piece of paper at me. "Effie told me to give these to everyone, it's the schedule for the week." She rolls her eyes.

I nod and pick up the piece of paper, folding it and putting it away for safe keeping in the back of my lanyard. "So, what cabin did you get?"

"Cabin eight, right next to you." She says, motioning to the direction of her cabin. "The new girl's on your other side."

The way the cabins are set up is the boys have the first five cabins, and the girls have the last five. There's no particular way they're set up, just two different clusters of five cabins. The boy's cabins are at the bottom of the big hill, and farther up, the girls are at the top. As Effie puts it, she doesn't want any "shenanigans" going on between the different genders.

"The kids are getting here soon." I say, glancing out of the window. "We could at least see if she's here yet."

"Who cares? The kids can take care of themselves." Johanna mumbles, falling back against the bed, shutting her eyes.

I roll my eyes, standing up. "Well, I'm going to go find her, whether you're coming or not." I pick up one of my knit hats from my bed, pulling it over my head.

She groans, looking over at me before rolling off of the bed, standing up and stretching. "Fine."

I swing open the door, cold air blowing snow flurries in my face. It's not like we need anymore snow, the ground is already coated with it. But I'm not complaining, you can never have too much snow at Camp.

I walk down the porch steps, trudging through the snow and heading towards the empty cabin. Johanna walks beside me, wrapping her arms around herself. "I honestly don't see what the big deal is." She mutters, sighing.

I ignore her and keep walking, the cabin coming into view. The lights are already on, and I glance over at Johanna, raising an eyebrow. She shrugs as we make our way up the stairs, knocking lightly on the door.

I hear shuffling inside of the room and furrow my eyebrows. "Hello?" I call out, moving my hand to the doorknob. The shuffling inside stops, the only sound now Johanna's sigh of annoyance.

"I don't have time for this." She mumbles, pushing my hand out of the way before reaching for the doorknob, swinging the door open and walking inside. I roll my eyes before walking inside after Johanna, stopping when I see a person on the other side of the cabin.

It's a girl, she looks about my age, and she's sitting in the farthest bed in the corner of the cabin. She has flowing brown hair and green eyes, wide as she stares across the room at us. She doesn't say a word as she looks at us, her arms wrapped around her knees. She's super pretty, no doubt about it, she just looks...beraggled.

"Hi!" I say, smiling at her and glancing over at Johanna. She just stares at the girl in disbelief, looking over at me and raising an eyebrow. I already know what she's thinking, and I give her a look before turning back to the girl. "I'm Katniss, this is Johanna. You must be the new counselor."

I make my way over to her and hold my hand out to her, receiving a small smile from her. She loosely shakes my hand before quickly withdrawing, looking down. "I'm Annie." she mumbles.

I smile slightly, Johanna shaking her head and looking out of the window, laughing quietly to herself. I sigh and turn back to Annie. "Nice to meet you, Annie. I think the kids are going to be here soon, if you want to go with us to wait for them you're more than welcome." I try to make eye contact with her, but she just stares at the ground, nodding before standing up.

I lead the way to the door, heading outside. Johanna follows behind me, still laughing quietly to herself. "I'm just going to grab my lanyard, you can wait out here if you want." I glance back at her, but she doesn't seem to hear me, concentrating on each of her steps. I shrug and jog up the stairs to my cabin, Johanna following behind me. I walk inside and she immediately plops down on a bed, laughing.

"Don't say it." I sigh, picking up my lanyard and putting it over my head, already knowing what she's about to say.

"She's crazy." Johanna shakes her head, smirking. "Just look at her." I glance out of the window at Annie, as she stands quietly outside of the door, lost in thought as she stares out at the woods.

"Oh, come on." I cross my arms, looking down at her. "She's just...shy, that's all."

"She's literally crazy." Johanna sighs, standing up and running a hand through her short hair. "Finnick sure is going to have fun with this one." She smirks, heading out of the cabin. I follow after her, shaking my head. Johanna is a good friend, honest. She's just not too kind when it comes to people. Over the years I've learned to tolerate her attitude.

We make our way down the hill, the snow gently falling around us in a flurry. I glance around, and see most of the counselors already making their way towards the meeting hall, where the kids will first arrive.

We walk in silence as we reach the bottom of the hill. We come up upon the group of counselors standing together in a group, talking. We walk over to them, joining in.

"Hey guys," Johanna says, sighing. "This is Annie, she's the new counselor." Annie smiles softly and looks up at everyone before looking back at the ground. Of course, Finnick's the first one to introduce himself.

"Well hello Annie," he smirks and raises an eyebrow. "I'm Finnick." We all sigh under our breath, expecting nothing less from him. Annie just looks up at him, nodding in acknowledgement. Johanna snickers quietly before clapping and starting to lead the way to the Meeting Hall. "Come on, I don't have time to watch Finnick try to flirt with another girl." We all chuckle and slowly start to head to the Meeting Hall, following behind her.

I walk next to Annie, Finnick on her other side (of course). "You'll love it here, trust me." I lean in to whisper to her, "And yes, Finnick's always like this, he thinks he's cuter than he actually is." I smile, earning a small laugh from her.

"What was that?" Finnick asks, raising an eyebrow at me. I just grin and shake my head, turning away and shrugging. We walk into the building, immediately greeted by a frantic looking Effie.

"10 minutes people! 10 minutes and the buses will be here!" She yells, scurrying around and straightening every single little chair in the room. No one bothers to tell her the kids will just destroy the neatness, she already knows. That's just how Effie is, a perfectionist at its finest.

The counselors all walk over to a set of couches in the corner, enjoying the quiet before the chaos begins; the calm before the storm, if you want to put it that way. I end up between Peeta and Annie, warmed by the fireplace near us.

"Rumor has it we get to pick our own teams this time." Cato says from the other couch, leaning back against the chair.

"Please, Haymitch says that every year." Glimmer rolls her eyes. "That rumor's been going around for twelve years."

Annie looks over at me confused. "I don't understand, what teams?" She whispers, glancing at the other people.

"Every year one of the girl cabins is paired up with a guy's cabin." I explain as everyone starts to have their own small conversations. "That'll be your group for the rest of camp. You'll play all the games and competitions with that group. At the end of the week whichever team has won the most games wins the 'camp cup.'" I roll my eyes slightly. "It's a trophy made out of junk spray painted gold. You can thank Haymitch for that."

She nods slightly, looking around at the other counselors quietly. "Hm."

I can already tell Annie's not one to talk much. But I'm not complaining, it's not bothering me as much as a super talkative person would.

"Five minutes!" Effie screeches from across the room.

My point exactly.

I pull out my list of campers from my lanyard and look over the names.

Jane, Elizabeth, Cassie, Lydia, and Allie. I'm surprised this year, most of the names on the list are unfamiliar to me, except Lydia. I've been her counselor for three years in a row, and she's always one of the easiest campers to watch over. She's one of the cutest ten year olds I've ever met.

This year should be interesting with all the new faces, I just hope they're not too difficult...

Effie gasps from across the room, turning to look at us. "I see the bus!" She runs outside, swinging the door open to great the kids. We glance at each other before standing up and walking over the the door, ready to great the campers. Camp is finally ready to begin.

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Thank you for reading! Reviews are much appreciated! :)


	3. Chapter 3

I step outside, sticking my hands in my pockets as we all line up outside, ready to greet all the campers. As the bus comes into view I can already hear the loud excited screaming coming from inside it. There certainly is not an abundance of shy kids at our camp.

Effie looks around us, seeing if there's a stray leaf she can straighten before she perks up, looking around. "Where's Haymitch?" She asks, a panicked look on her face.

Cato scoffs from the back of the group. "Where do you think?" We all know where he's at, the hidden liquor cabinet in the kitchen. He stays there...a lot.

Effie huffs in aggravation as the bus nears. "Okay everyone, get ready to find your campers." She chirps. "And remember - big smiles!" She adds, plastering one on her face as well. The counselors glance around at each other before rolling our eyes and smiling as the bus finally pulls up to a stop.

The doors open and a huge wave of kids come running excitedly out, complete with bags and a name tag.

"Everyone find their counselors and start getting settled in!" Effie yells, grinning a little over-dramatically at the kids.

A smile and look over the group. There's 50 kids in all, that means five for each counselor. Suddenly I catch one of the little girl's eyes and she squeals, grinning and running up. "Katniss!" She tackles me in a hug, her dark pigtails flying behind her.

"Well hello to you too, Lydia." I chuckle, leaning down and hugging her. "I've missed you, you've gotten so big!" I grin, looking down at her and ruffling her hair. Lydia has light brown skin and big blue eyes that's almost impossible to say no to.

"I know!" She smiles, pulling back and looking up at me. "I'm almost big enough to stand in the deep foot side of the pool! I can't wait until summer this year!"

I laugh and shake my head. "Slow down, we're not at summer yet." I feel a tug on my shirt and turn around to a small pale girl with red curly hair.

"Um, are you Katniss?" She asks softly, staring up at me. She's holding her cabin leader assignment in her shaking hand.

I smile and bend down to her level, taking her hand in mine. "I sure am. And who would you be?"

"I'm Elizabeth." She gives me a small smile before looking down at the snow, digging her foot into the ground.

"Well, Elizabeth, you're gonna love it here, trust me." I let go of her hand as she stares at the people around her.

"Katniss, this is Cassie." Lydia says behind me as I stand up. I turn around to a girl with short brown hair and tan skin. She crosses her arms and looks up at me. "She sat next to me on the bus." Lydia adds.

"Nice to meet you, Cassie." I smile at her, but she just sighs and scrunches up her face.

"Whatever." She mumbles before turning away and huffing. I raise my eyebrow, but I don't let myself get too offended. Some of these kids go through some pretty awful things in their normal lives. Some of them go through more than I ever will. All I can do is just be a kind person and hope to be a safe haven to them.

Effie walks over a huge smile plastered on her face with a small girl in tow. She has long black hair in a braid down her back and light skin. "Katniss this is Allie, this is her first year." She says with a sing-song voice before stepping away to help another camper. I open my mouth to greet Allie, but she beats me to it.

"Hi! I'm Allie I'm 8 years old and my favorite animal is panda bears." She grins before skipping off to join the other girls. I smile and look over at the girls. There's four of them, I'm only missing one. I look around, hoping to spot the last one.

"Katniss!" I hear Johanna yell above the chatter of all the kids. I look over and she motions to a boy and a girl standing in front of the bus, confused as where to go.

"Okay, girls stay here. I'll be right back." I say before walking over to the bus and smiling.

"Hi, I'm Katniss. Would you be Jane, by any chance?" I ask, looking to the girl. She nods, her wide green eyes staring at me.

"This is my brother, Jacob." I look over to her brother and smile. He's obviously younger than her by a couple years, but not too much.

"Hi Jacob, do you need help finding your camp counselor?" I raise an eyebrow. He nods and hands me his cabin assignment but Jane reaches out and grabs his hand protectively.

"No. We're not getting separated. We're staying together." She states, staring at me. I blink a couple times, sighing and shaking my head.

"I wish you guys could stay together, honest. But we just can't allow-" Jane cuts me off before I can finish talking, stamping down her foot.

"We're not getting separated!" She yells, furrowing her eyebrows and holding on tightly to her younger brother. The crowd of kids gets quiet and looks over at us, wanting to see what's going on. I bite my lip and bend down to their height, looking at the both of them.

"Jane, I know you might be scared to be separated from your brother, but I promise you nothing bad will happen to either of you, okay? I promise." I say gently, looking at her. "Is there a reason why you're scared? Maybe I can help you calm down."

Her eyes water as she looks at me, biting her lip. "Whenever my daddy takes Jacob away from me he always hurts him." She says, looking at me. "I don't want anyone to hurt him like daddy does."

I stare at her quietly for a moment in disbelief, my heart breaking as I watch her face. "Jane...I promise no one will hurt him, /no one/." I say softly, looking at her. She still looks unconvinced as she stares at me, not knowing whether or not the believe me. I look down at the cabin assignment paper and bite my bottom lip for a moment before looking back up at her. "How about this, I can show you his counselor, and then you can see if you change your mind. Would that make you feel better?"

Jane bites her lip for a moment before nodding slightly. "Okay..."

I nod and stand up, looking around. "Hey, Peeta!" I call, motioning him over. He raises an eyebrow and says something to his campers before walking over. "What's wrong?" He asks.

I take a deep breath, nodding towards Jane and her brother. "There's a girl with her brother at the bus and she refuses to be separated from him. She says that if they're split up then whoever her brother's counselor is might hurt him like..their dad does." I sigh, handing him Jacob's cabin assignment. "She said that if she met you that might make her feel better."

He sighs and scratches the back of his neck, looking down at the paper. "Gosh..." He nods before looking up at me. "Let's go."

I bite the inside of my cheek, taking a deep breath and leading him over to the kids. Peeta smiles and looks down at her and her brother. "So, I heard that you're Jane and Jacob, huh?" He asks, a kind tone in his voice. They nod, looking up at him skeptically, not saying anything. "I also heard that you're scared of being separated." They nod again, and Jacob looks down at the ground.

"Well, I'm going to tell you something a very smart person told me a long time ago." He said, grabbing their attention. "I'm a painter, so that means I draw a lot and make a whole bunch of pictures. And one day when I was drawing a picture, someone told me that as a painter I should only use my hands to help and not hurt." He says gently, looking down at them. "So that's what I always do, I use my hands to help and never hurt. I would never in a million years hurt either of you."

Jane stares up at him, her trust slowly starting to come back to her face. She stays quiet for a moment before holding out her pinky to him, "Promise?" She asks, raising her eyebrows.

"Pinky promise." He smiles, linking their pinkies together, glancing up at me. "So now are you ready to get camp started?"

She nods excitedly, picking up her back pack and putting it on. "I'm ready." She smiles.

"Alright." I smile, patting her arm. "See I told you there's nothing to worry about." She grins before skipping over to the group of other girls and introducing herself. Before I leave, I stop and and turn to Peeta.

"Hey," I say, reaching out and grabbing his arm as he turns back to his campers. He turns around and looks at me, raising an eyebrow. "Thank you."

He smiles and nods slightly as I drop my hand. "No problem." I smile before turning back to my campers, gaining their attention as I walk over.

"Now who's ready to start camp?"

* * *

Hey everyone, I realize that I haven't posted in a long time, and I'm sorry about that! I've been super busy lately, but I'm back now and I plan on finishing this story, I haven't forgotten about it, trust me. :P Now that most of the characters have been introduced the story will get more interesting now, I know it's been kind of boring for the past three chapters. Anyways, please leave a review, it would mean a lot to me! Don't be afraid to leave suggestions either, who knows, it might end up in the story! Thanks! :)


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